Presidents

After completing an Arts degree from Trinity College Cambridge, King Charles served in the Royal Air Force and Royal Navy from 1971 to 1976. Among his many philanthropic and environmental endeavours are the Prince’s Trust which he founded in 1976 and The Prince’s Charities, as well as patron of many other charities and the arts.

OBE PhD FSA FRSE HonFSAScot

Following completion of his PhD on later medieval master masons working in Norfolk, Richard Fawcett joined the Ancient Monuments Inspectorate of Historic Scotland. In 2006 he was offered a professorship in the School of Art History of the University of St Andrews, where he is now Emeritus Professor. He has published extensively on medieval architecture, including the award-winning Architecture of the Scottish Medieval Church 1100-1560 (Yale, 2011). He has been Principal Investigator of the AHRC-funded Corpus of Scottish Medieval Parish Churches project and he presented the Rhind Lectures in 2013. In 2008 he was appointed OBE.

AM MA DLitt FAHA FSA MCIfA HonFSAScot

Vincent Megaw is a British-born Australian archaeologist with research interests focussing on the archaeology and anthropology of art and musical instruments, Australasian prehistory and proto history. Together with his wife, the late M. Ruth Megaw, he has published extensively, notably on the art of the European pre-Roman Iron Age. In the 1960s he was Lecturer and Senior Lecturer in European Iron Age Archaeology at the University of Sydney. From 1971 to 1982 he was Chair of Archaeology and Head of Department at Leicester University. Other appointments have included Visiting Professorship at the University of Edinburgh and in 2004 was made a Member of the Order of Australia.

(Lord Renfrew of Kaimsthorn) ScD FSA FBA HonFSAScot

Colin Renfrew was made Lecturer in Prehistory and Archaeology at the University of Sheffield in 1965, then Professor at the University of Southampton. In 1981 he moved to Cambridge as Disney Professor of Archaeology, and as founding Director of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, retiring in 2004. He was Master of Jesus College, Cambridge from 1986 to 1997 and was made a Life Peer in 1991. He gave the Rhind Lectures in 2000-2001.

BSc Dip.Archaeol. FSA HonFSAScot

Martin Carver was an army officer for 15 years (Royal Tank Regiment), a Commercial Archaeologist for 13 years, Editor of Antiquity for 10 years and Professor of Archaeology at York for 22 years, retiring in 2008. Since then he has been a full time researcher and writer and is currently working in Sicily on a joint project investigating the Byzantine-Arabic-Norman transition. He presented the 2010 Rhind Lectures.

OBE BA PhD FSA FRSE HonDLitt HonMCIfA HonFSAScot

David J. Breeze was President of the Society from 1987 to 1990, and Chief Inspector of Ancient Monuments, Scotland, from 1989 to 2005. His research interests are Roman frontiers and the Roman army. He has excavated and published on both Hadrian’s Wall and the Antonine Wall. He gave the Rhind Lectures in 2019.

MA MSocSci FSA MCIfA HonFSAScot

Caroline graduated in archaeology at the University of Edinburgh in 1977 and later completed a Masters degree in heritage management at the University of Birmingham. Former Secretary to the Society (1988-1992) and lecturer in Archaeology at the University of Aberdeen (2009-2015). Her research focusses on the earliest communities of Scotland at the end of the last Ice Age. Author of many books and papers to academic and popular audiences and increasingly works with television and other media.

HonFSAScot

Willy Groenman-van Waateringe graduated in biology and archaeology. She has been Reader and Professor in Environmental Archaeology at the Institute for Pre- and Proto-history of the University of Amsterdam from 1970-1998. She worked on different topics, in the field of archaeological palynology, archaeological leather and the Roman army. She is also Honorary Member of the Association of Environmental Archaeology and is corresponding member of the German Archaeological Institute.

DLIT HonFSAScot

Diderik van der Waals studied at Amsterdam University and awarded PhD in 1964 by Groningen University on Prehistoric Disc Wheel in the Netherlands. Worked on Beaker-related problems and helped to identify the Swifterbant Culture and excavated a group of its settlement sites. In 1969 was nominated Professor extraodinarius at Utrecht University and then at Groningen University.

MBE BSc Dip Arch HonFSAScot

Lisbeth Thoms completed a social sciences degree at Edinburgh University and a diploma in archaeology at the University of Durham. Joined Dundee Museums in 1972 as a field archaeologist and was actively involved in the development of urban archaeology in Scotland. During her 25 year career in local government she was Depute Curator of Museums and Head of Heritage Services at Dundee City Council. In 1997 she became a freelance archaeologist and heritage adviser developing a particular interest in the preservation of sites and monuments. Awarded MBE in 2008 for services to conservation in Scotland. President of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 2002-2005.

OBE MA WS FSA FRSE HonFSAScot 

Chair of Historic Environment Scotland, originally medieval historian and lawyer, latterly public administrator and charity trustee, including Trustee of Society of Antiquaries of Scotland and first Chief Executive of Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR).

OBE BA PhD FSA HonFSAScot

Anna Ritchie is a former President of this Society (1990 to 1993) and has served as a Trustee of both National Museums Scotland and the British Museum. Her excavations and research interests lie in the Neolithic and early medieval periods of Scotland’s past, on which she has written a number of books and articles, ranging from Prehistoric Orkney to Viking Scotland.

CBE MA FSA MCIfA HonFSAScot

Diana Murray studied archaeology at Cambridge University. She has devoted her career to Scottish cultural heritage, including Chief Executive of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS), then joint CEO of Historic Scotland. She is currently Chair of Arts and Business Scotland. Diana is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland and of the Society of Antiquaries of London and has served as a trustee of both. She is an Honorary Fellow of the School of History, Classics and Archaeology at Edinburgh University, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, a Fellow of the Scottish Royal Geographical Society and a Member of the Institute of Directors.

HonFSA HonFSAScot HonMEAA

Kristian Kristiansen is a Danish archaeologist known for his contributions to the study of Bronze Age Europe, heritage studies and archaeological theory. Director of the Danish Archaeological Heritage Administration from 1979 to 1994, and since then has been a professor at Gothenburg University. He initiated the founding of the European Association of Archaeologists in 1994, and served as its first president until 1998. Founding editor the European Journal of Archaeology. He has held visiting professorships at the Sorbonne, Stanford University, Cambridge University and Oxford University.

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HonFSAScot

Leendert Kooijmans is former Dean of the Faculty, Director of the National School for Archaeological Research and Professor of Prehistoric Archaeology at the University of Leiden. From 1966 to 1982 he was the Curator of the National Museum of Antiquities at Leiden. In 1974 he received his Ph.D. for a thesis on the relation between sea-level change and the prehistoric occupation of the western parts of the Netherlands. His research focuses on the Neolithic in general, and the transition of hunter gatherer communities to farming in north-west Europe.

OBE MA FSA HonFSAScot

Audrey Henshall joined the staff of the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland in 1952 and was Assistant Keeper from 1960-71. Appointed Assistant Secretary of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland in 1970. Elected an Honorary Fellow in recognition of her out-standing academic contribution to Scottish archaeology, most notably her survey of Neolithic chambered tombs and her studies of early textiles. She was awarded the Dorothy Marshall medal by the Society in 2016.

OBE MA MA PhD HonFSAScot

Isabel Henderson was the Society’s Rhind Lecturer in 1976-77. Studied at Newnham College Cambridge, was Fellow and Director of Studies of History of Art, and then H.M. Chadwick Memorial Lecturer 1996. She has published widely on Pictish art, notably on the St Andrews Sarcophagus, the Hilton of Cadboll, Cross-slab and joint book author with George Henderson, The Art of the Picts: Sculpture and Metalwork in Early Medieval Scotland, reprinted 2011.

BA PhD DLitt LittD FSA MRIA HonFSAScot

George Eogan is an Irish archaeologist with particular interest in the Neolithic and Late Bronze Ages. He is Professor Emeritus of Celtic Archaeology at University College Dublin. He was Director of the Knowth excavations for more than 40 years as part of his research into the passage tomb builders in Ireland and Western Europe, author of Excavations at Knowth volumes 1 and 5, and co-author of volume 2.

MA FRSE HonFSAScot

Edward J Cowan, Emeritus Professor of Scottish History and Literature, University of Glasgow, Director of Glasgow’s Crichton University Campus 2005-2009.  Main areas of research and publication are Vikings and Sagas, Wars of Independence, Scottish Political Thought, The Covenanters, Scottish Emigration and most recently research on the Ethnology of Dumfries and Galloway.

MA PhD ScD FSA FBA FlDhc FRSA HonMIfA HonMRIA HonFSAScot

John Coles has degrees from Edinburgh, Cambridge and Uppsala. His main interests are European later prehistory, experimental archaeology, wetland archaeology and rock art. He is also involved in research and committees in Ireland, Scotland and England, in Scandinavia and Poland.

MA DLitt FSA HonFSAScot

Aubrey Burl is a historian and archaeologist most well-known for his studies into megalithic monuments and the nature of prehistoric rituals associated with them. He is particularly interested in early societies of prehistoric Britain. Before retirement he was Principal Lecturer in Archaeology at Hull College.

MA FSA Fl.Dr.h.c. FBA MCIfA HonFSAScot

Richard Bradley studied law at university. Following a period of freelance work, in 1971 was appointed to teach archaeology at Reading University, retiring as Emeritus Professor in 2013. He conducted excavations and surveys at prehistoric sites in Scotland including Clava Cairns, stone circles and henges. He gave the Society’s Rhind Lectures in 1992.

HonFSAScot

Neal Ascherson, journalist and was born in Edinburgh and introduced to the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland as a very young Fellow by Marion Campbell of Kilberry. He founded and for ten years edited the journal ‘Public Archaeology’ at the Institute of Archaeology at the University College London and in 2016 became Visiting Professor at the Institute. He is also a Trustee of Kilmartin Museum.

BSc MA DPhil FSA FRSE FRSChem HonFSAScot

Robert Anderson is President and CEO of the Science History Institute based in Philadelphia USA, 2016-to present. He was first Director of the National Museums of Scotland from 1985 to 1992 and was Director of the British Museum from 1992 to 2002. Oxford DPhil. Emeritus Fellow, Clare Hall, Cambridge. Honorary Fellow, St John’s College, Oxford. Honorary doctorates from Edinburgh and Durham Universities. He is Editor of the correspondence of chemist Joseph Black (1728-1799).